The number of COVID-19 cases registered in France is still higher than 15,000 per day, according to official figures published on Saturday.

There were 17,565 new cases during the last 24 hours, compared to 15,674 cases the day before.

The percentage of positive tests remained stable at 5.6 percent, compared to 5.9 percent a day earlier. The figure was 6.4 percent on December 8, before a different census methodology was adopted.

And 190 people died as a result of the virus in hospitals Friday, out of a total of 60,418 deaths since the appearance of COVID-19 in March.

France is supposed to start a vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in the last week of December.